Contrast-enhanced ultrasound as a predictor of treatment efficacy within 2 weeks after transarterial chemoembolization of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Purpose: To determine whether contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) can aid in assessing treatment efficacy within the first 2 weeks after transarterial chemoembolization for hepatocellular carcinoma.

Materials And Methods: Contrast-enhanced ultrasound was performed to detect residual tumor blood flow after 42 transarterial chemoembolization procedures in 33 patients who had hepatocellular carcinomas, and the results were compared with final tumor outcome. Twenty-nine CEUS studies were performed within 2 weeks after treatment and the remainder within 1 month.

Liver fibrosis: noninvasive diagnosis with double contrast material-enhanced MR imaging.

Purpose: To retrospectively evaluate the accuracy of double contrast material-enhanced (hereafter double-enhanced) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging depiction of hepatic fibrosis, with histopathologic analysis findings as the reference standard.

Materials And Methods: The institutional review board approved this HIPAA-compliant study and waived the requirement for informed consent. One hundred one patients (58 men, 43 women; mean age +/- standard deviation, 52 years +/- 10) who underwent double-enhanced MR imaging with superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO)-enhanced and double-enhanced spoiled gradient-echo (SPGR) sequences between 2001 and 2004 and had a reliable reference standard for the diagnosis of liver fibrosis were included.